Memories of "Bobby"

With the protests still going strong throughout the city, cityboy takes a break to think back to 52 years ago. The memory came to me as I was listening to Schubert's brutal string quartet, entitled Death and the Maiden. Especially its sad and plaintive second movement. Here is some background.
 June 4, 1968--I attend New York City Ballet performance at the State theater, as I have many time that season. As I watch I am aware it is also the night of the Democratic Primary in California. The final ballet, Balanchine's Symphony in C, has a third movement danced with incredible joy. A friend whom I have met at the ballet by accident is also thrilled by it. We leave on a high--my thoughts turn to the Primary---Bobby Kennedy is sure to win---right? What could be more meaningful.
  I return home to the small studio apartment that I have on Irving Place between 18th and19th street. It must be around 11, or 11:30. I turn on the radio---Kennedy has won--I go to sleep feeling jubilant
and incredibly relaxed.
   The next morning, I am not sure when, I here the news. First, that he is not dead--maybe some hope---but soon that changes. I have to at work by 9, but I can't move. I have a copy of Death and the Maiden in the apartment---I have borrowed it from the library---I stop everything and play the second movement over and over again. I am lost in a world of horror and disappointment. I can't believe that it really happened.
   Since his brother's assasination, 4 and a half years earlier, the word on Kennedy was that he had changed greatly. No longer the cold, machine like protector of his older brother, he had learned compassion and strength--he was looking at everything from a fresh perspective. Born into wealth, it was thought that his vision of the U.S. was that of a nation where wealth was not paramount, where the disenfranchised could have his voice, where he would fight for a very fair nation for all. He had, many who knew him said, a vision that was moving very strongly to the left. But of course, we will never know.
   Now here we are in the middle of what might be seen as an incredible rebellion. The protests continue and they don't lose any strength. Is what the protesters want--a more accountable police force, and by definition, a much less powerful "ruling class"?-- something that Bobby might have made possible if he had won the Presidency. It's all a void; we can just try for now.